Office of Life, Justice and Peac​e

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The Office of Life, Justice and Peace (OLJP) implements the vision of Archbishop José Gomez on social issues by offering strategic leadership to parishes and community partners through education, advocacy, prayer and service. OLJP promotes the common good, rooting initiatives in the reality that each person is created by God for relationship with him and in community with others.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with our vast ethnic, cultural and economic diversity, is a small manifestation of the universal Church. Promoting integral human development in this context requires a culture of encounter and a transformative commitment to solidarity.

OLJP focuses on the issues of abortion, assisted suicide, the death penalty, human trafficking, homelessness, poverty, foster care, healthcare, post-abortion healing, religious freedom, and environmental justice within the context of developing an authentic human ecology for the communities of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

"The Church must continue to insist that the fundamental injustice
and violence in our society is the direct killing of those who are not yet born
through abortion and those who are sick and at the end of their lives through euthanasia
and assisted suicide. In this culture, the Church must insist that abortion and
euthanasia are grave and intrinsic evils — evils that are corrosive and
corrupting, evils that are at the heart of other social injustices.

"For decades now, we have accepted a basic 'fault-line' in the
Church’s social witness — between self-described 'pro-life' C​​atholics and those
who consider themselves 'peace and justice' Catholics. This is a false divide
and one that is a scandal to Christ and the Church’s faithful witness in
society...When one of God’s children is
suffering injustice he calls the rest of us to love and compassion and to 'make
things right.' Our concern for human dignity and life can never be partial or a
half-measure. How can we justify defending the dignity of some and not others
or protecting God’s creation while neglecting some of his most vulnerable creatures?" Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, Forward to Catholics in the Public Square​